4th Grade - Aliens!

I was inspired by a post from one of my favorite blogs: That Artist Woman.

Hers is a frog, but at the end she shows a picture of her son's take on the project - a monster/alien/creature. I took this kid's idea and ran with it.

I started out by having my students trace each of their hands on the sides of a 12x18" piece of white sulfur paper (watercolor paper would be good, too). Then they drew the alien's head in the middle, keeping in mind that they would later weave either one or two eyes (their choice) and glue them on. I had stencils that were the size that the eyes would be on hand so students could be sure they would fit. They could also alter the hands to make them more... out of this world, if you will. After they outlined it heavily with crayon, they had to choose a texture (i.e. watercolor technique) : salt, plastic wrap, marker, crayon or oil pastel. We've experimented with all of these before, so students were aware of the effect the technique would make.

Once the paint was dry, they cut out the alien's head and hands and glued them onto a black piece of construction paper. Then, it was time for the weaving. I simplified the weaving a bit compared to the inspiration project... I just have students weave around the tag board itself, making sure they cut 5 slits (an even number will not work... 5 seemed to be the best amount for the size we were working with).


I also had them use yarn that was already multi-colored. I had several choices for them to choose from - most wanted the bright rainbow. Psychedelic, indeed. Once weaved, the eye(s) are glued on and voila! This project was definitely a hallway crowd pleaser.

I still have a few classes to finish this project with, and I think I'm going to have them oil pastel a space background.

Paper Woven Stockings/The Beginning

This is the kind of thing you'd think I would start in the summer with those 3 months off, and really, I wish I would have. However, I have only recently discovered the wealth of wonderful art lessons that can be found through fellow art teacher's blogs, and I am hoping that this blog will be equally useful to someone else. I am still learning the ins and outs, so if you have just stumbled upon this humble blog, please bear with me.

I'd like to start this blog with a timely lesson for the season - paper weaving stockings. I love to do paper weaving because I find that some of my kids who think they "aren't good at art," find ease with this project. The way I teach this lesson, there is a lot of prep, but I find it worthwhile since it is a "one-class wonder" (35 minutes - 2nd grade). I pre cut the "looms" by folding a few sheets of construction paper in half and cutting at each inch on the cutting board, as well as cutting the strips.

I give students a 9x12" red loom, a regular 9x12" red paper, and a stencil for the foot part of the stocking. I instruct students to trace and cut the foot first, and then tackle the weaving. I've taught weaving a couple ways - this time I did the simple "over/under" technique, but my mentor teacher taught me a way where the students label each strip on the loom either an X or an O - then go under the X's the first time, under the O's the second, under the X's the third, etc... but while I found this to be effective, it was time consuming and many students can weave without it. While students are weaving, I am circulating the room around and around helping students who need help and pushing the strips to the top of the loom. When they finish weaving, they glue the "tabs"(the ends of the green strips), glue the foot on the bottom, and draw the stitching in the heel and toe.


And for those students who do not celebrate Christmas, I have an alternative "paper weaving T-shirt" lesson ready to go that also uses the red looms:

Art Classroom Tip: Name tags

For as long as I can come up with them, I'd like to include a "classroom management" idea with each lesson. Today, the idea is not a unique one, but a great one for teachers like me who teach at multiple schools. Pre-typed name tags are not always a time saver, but they certainly save me a lot of hassle. I have my name tags organized in computer folders by grade level and then each class list file is named with the grade and teacher. I keep them on a jump drive so I always have the most updated list no matter where I am. The name tag includes the student name with last initial, grade, teacher, and school, so if projects get mixed up, I know exactly who it goes to and what school. Projects are ready for art shows and look just as nice and finished in the hallway at school. I usually pre-staple name tags to project paper for K-2, so I never have to worry about no-name papers. The 3rd-5th graders cut and staple or glue their own name tag to finished projects when they are complete, and they stay in table folders in the meantime (more on that later).